HISTORY:
According to the Greek geographer Strabo, Capri was once united to the mainland, which was recently confirmed both by geological surveys and archaeological findings, and was inhabited since very early times. According to Suetonius, when the foundations for the villa of Augustus were being excavated, giant bones and 'weapons of stone' were discovered, which the emperor ordered to be displayed in the garden of his main residence, the Sea Palace, one of the first displays of fossils in the world.
Tacitus records that there were twelve Imperial villas in Capri (or Capreae, as it was spelled in Latin). Augustus's successor Tiberius also built a series of villas at Capri, the most famous of which is the Villa Jovis, one of the best preserved Roman villas in Italy. In 27, Tiberius permanently moved to Capri, running the Empire from there until his death in 37.
After the end of the Western Roman Empire, Capri suffered various attacks by pirates. In 866 Emperor Louis II gave the island to Amalfi. In 1496 a diplom by Frederick IV of Naples established legal and administrative parity between the two settlements of Capri and Anacapri. The pirate raids reached their peak during the reign of Charles V: the famous Turkish admirals Khair ad-Din and Dragut sacked the island in 1535 and 1553, respectively.
The first famous visitor of the island was the French Jean Jacques Bourchard, in the 17th century. His diary, found in 1850, is an important source about the state of Capri in that age.
In January 1806, French troops occupied the island but the British ousted the French troops in the May of the same year and turned Capri into a powerful naval base (a "Second Gibilterra"), causing heavy damage to the archaeological sites.
Joachim Murat conquered back Capri in 1808, and the French remained here until the end of the Napoleonic era (1815), when he was given back to the Bourbon ruling house of Naples.
In the 2nd half of the 19th century, Capri became a popular resort for european artists, writers and other celebrities.
